{"id":169817,"date":"2026-02-09T01:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169817\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T01:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:13:21","slug":"just-say-no-dodgers-players-should-decline-white-house-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169817\/","title":{"rendered":"Just say no. Dodgers players should decline White House visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During their recent magical World Series run<\/a>, the champion Dodgers<\/a> had many heroes, but one constant.<\/p>\n

Whenever they needed a leader, they found one.<\/p>\n

No matter how dire the circumstances, whenever they needed a hero, somebody stepped up.<\/p>\n

Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> won a game on zero days\u2019 rest. Will Smith<\/a> won a game with one hand.<\/p>\n

Freddie Freeman<\/a> was an 18th-inning savior on one leg. Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> was a ninth-inning savior with a bad elbow.<\/p>\n

Everywhere you looked, there was a veteran Dodger willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the team.<\/p>\n

That needs to happen again.<\/p>\n

That needs to happen now.<\/p>\n

A player needs to spearhead a decision that will not be made by the big business that runs this team, a decision that will bypass the biased blather and directly connect to the Dodgers\u2019 many besieged fans, a decision that only a player can make.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Thursday\u2019s White House confirmation<\/a> that the Dodgers will be making the traditional champions visit there this spring, somebody needs to send a clear message to President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Federal <\/p>\n

Federal immigration agents stage outside Gate E of Dodger Stadium on June 19. Sporadic immigration raids continue to roil Southern California. <\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

No, they won\u2019t go.<\/p>\n

No, they will not support the ICE raids that are taking place daily<\/a> just outside their clubhouse doors.<\/p>\n

No, they will not openly support an administration that has declared war on its fan base.<\/p>\n

No, after basking in the adulation of 4 million diverse neighbors<\/a> every summer, the players will not turn their backs on these people while the government continues to round them up despite no criminal history.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t about asking pro athletes to be politicians. This is about asking them to be people.<\/p>\n

Some will say players should not be involved, that it\u2019s a management decision high above the pay grade of the average southpaw or slugger. But when their backyard becomes a battlefield, those players need to fight back, and that time is now.<\/p>\n

Dodgers management always will leave any tough choice like this one up to the players. By virtue of hundreds of millions of dollars of salaries, the players are essentially partners who need to embrace that responsibility.<\/p>\n

No matter what owner Mark Walter<\/a> says, if the players don\u2019t want to visit the White House, they won\u2019t go.<\/p>\n

No matter who shouts the loudest, whether it be conservatives or liberals, the players\u2019 collective voice is the only one that counts.<\/p>\n

So, when spring training begins next week, here\u2019s hoping for a hero.<\/p>\n

After being showered with numerous curtain calls by an adoring fan base<\/a>, it\u2019s time for the players to return the favor.<\/p>\n

How about a standing ovation for the brave law-abiding immigrant family of four that cheers you from the left-field pavilion even though they know they could be arrested and hauled away at any time?<\/p>\n

How about a \u201cLet\u2019s Go Dodgers\u201d chant for the longtime residents with no criminal record who spent last October huddled around their TV sets clinging to your victories as reason for hope?<\/p>\n

How about being there for so many who have been there for you?<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A protestor wearing a Mookie Betts jersey and waving a stitched-together Mexican and American flag protests ICE outside Dodger Stadium on June 21.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

This was an issue last year, when former Times columnist Dylan Hern\u00e1ndez urged the Dodgers to cancel<\/a> their initial White House visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was something we discussed with all the players, all of whom wanted to go,\u201d team president Stan Kasten told Hern\u00e1ndez. \u201cRemember, everyone in here grew up wanting to be a world champion and all the things that come with it, and it comes with a champagne toast, silliness in the locker room, a parade, rings, an invitation to the White House. It\u2019s what they all come to associate with being world champions. Everyone wanted to go, and so we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they went, all of them except an injured Freddie Freeman<\/a>. The event even was attended by Mookie Betts, who previously declined a visit when he was with the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

Since then, the landscape has dramatically changed in light of the ICE raids that ramped up during the middle of the season.<\/p>\n

This is no longer simply about the rebuke of a president. This is about a fight against a system that consistently has terrorized Southern California streets and recently, in Minneapolis, resulted in the deaths of two American citizens at the hands of agents of the American government.<\/p>\n

Surely the Dodgers\u2019 clubhouse leaders see this. Surely they feel this.<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t be so insulated that they don\u2019t notice the protests in city streets that resemble those near Chavez Ravine. They can\u2019t be so sheltered that they don\u2019t hear the outrage from people who look just like their biggest fans.<\/p>\n

The players can\u2019t hide from this. The players need to handle this.<\/p>\n

And, no, it\u2019s not even up to manager Dave Roberts, who last week told The Times\u2019 Bill Shaikin that he supports the visit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised \u2014 by a man who served our country for 30 years \u2014 to respect the highest office in our country,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cFor me, it doesn\u2019t matter who is in the office, I\u2019m going to go to the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, this is no longer about just Trump. This is about Tom Homan and Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem and all the other immigration officials that have wrought so much unfounded havoc.<\/p>\n

Baseball clubhouses traditionally have leaned heavily to the right. Nobody is asking anybody to disavow their beliefs. This is no longer about ideology, this is about standing up for those who are being wrongly arrested, being unfairly harassed or being made to feel constantly frightened in their own homes.<\/p>\n

Dodger Stadium is one of those homes, and those who permanently live there need to do their best to provide comfort and safety for those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Dodgers leaders, this is your time.<\/p>\n

Their White House visit probably would occur during the team\u2019s trip to play the Washington Nationals in the first week of April. Here\u2019s hoping that before the road trip, the secure and well-paid Dodgers veterans let the team\u2019s kids understand what it means to be a Dodger and how declining a White House visit would be the Jackie Robinson thing to do.<\/p>\n

Sending a title team to the White House is baseball tradition. Sending a message about equality and fairness and freedom is a Dodgers tradition.<\/p>\n

Somebody in a Dodgers uniform needs to stand up for that tradition.<\/p>\n

Anybody?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During their recent magical World Series run, the champion Dodgers had many heroes, but one constant. Whenever they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[81478,81480,7363,6848,81476,4203,423,405,24710,6128,48,52,51,47,50,49,81479,592,427,315,81477],"class_list":["post-169817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-champion-dodgers","tag-clear-message","tag-country","tag-decision","tag-dodger-player","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-game","tag-government","tag-hand","tag-kike-hernandez","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-many-hero","tag-people","tag-team","tag-time","tag-white-house-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}